by destiny mizell
Featured Graphic by Destiny Mizell
Story by Larry Rincon
“Someday I’m going to make great machines that fly, and me and my friends are goingto go flying together into the forever and beautiful sky.”
– Rocket Racoon in “Guardiansof the Galaxy Volume 3”
In the past few weeks nature’s trash panda has taken the internet by storm. Raccoons have become a beloved creature by anyone who has seen Marvel’s latest movie release. While Marvel Studios may have had a rough start to their Phase Five, James Gunn demonstrates that not every superhero movie needs to try so hard to connect to the overall timeline through “Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3.”
The conclusion to “The Guardians of the Galaxy” Trilogy released a couple weeks ago, butinstead of focusing on whether this film was good or bad, I want to highlight how this film waseffective in providing audiences with closure on the story of the guardians.
The film picks up some time after the events of “Avengers: End Game.” The guardians arebuilding their new headquarters on Knowhere until Ayesha’s creation, Adam, attacks them insearch for Rocket. He eventually flees, leaving a critically injured Rocket behind. The guardians are set up to start their journey in saving their friend.
There is no doubt that this film is mostly about Rocket. Out of the guardians, his past hasalways been a mystery to both the audience and the characters on screen. Throughout the film,we see many flashbacks and memories of Rocket’s past; Some are happy and playful whileothers reveal how much pain the character suffered.
James Gunn is a brilliant storyteller and director. He did a wonderful job exploring Rocket’scharacter especially in relation to the other members of the team. The strong bonds betweencharacters played out well, and it was very obvious that the entire group loved Rocket dearly.
However, I am sad to say that the movie was one last adventure for the group. The charactershave gone through so much: losing many individuals they care about, growing and learningabout each other’s capabilities and just creating their makeshift space family. This last journeyat least felt satisfactory to watch.
The High Evolutionary wasn’t the typical Marvel villain. We have become used to individualswho want to destroy or kill off individuals and places, but he was a wild card considering his goalwas to create a perfect world. Of course, the only way to achieve that was by getting his handson Rocket’s mind, but in the grand scheme of things his motives were more immoral thanvillainous. In a way he reminded me of Thanos.
The guardians never cared about stopping him or his plans, so there was never really a groupversus him conflict. This movie was all about saving those close to you and helping others out. Itwas a far more relaxing experience knowing that the overall goal of this film was to close thestory on the guardians rather than one last spectacular or flashy reason why they are theGuardians of the Galaxy.
Going off of what I stated earlier, just like this film gave us more information on Rocket’s storyand developed his relationships with his team, we gained a lot of new information on the othercharacters and their relationships with each other. It no longer felt like the group of misfits thatbanded together from the first film; This is a family who rely on each other and can see eachother’s strengths when worst comes to worst.
The characters have grown so much and actually disprove the stereotypes they have beenlabeled as. Drax isn’t just the big strong character who lacks intelligence and Mantis is a lotstronger and more capable than her personality makes you believe.
This conclusion pulled at the heart strings in more ways than one. This film has set myexpectations high for the future of Phase Five of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. James Gunn created a great trilogy that follows the three act structure wonderfully. As we see more characters exit the MCU I do hope those films or series follow the example that “The Guardians of the Galaxy”trilogy has provided.
To contact Lifestyles Editor Destiny Mizell, email [email protected]. For more news, visit www.mtsusidelines.com, or follow us on Facebook at MTSU Sidelines or on Twitter at @Sidelines_News.